From the acclaimed author of “Small Town Pride”, Phil Stamper, comes a heartfelt coming-of-age middle grade novel about grief, love, loss, and finding your way forward in the vein of Kate Allen's “The Line Tender” and Jules Machias's “Both Can Be True”. The last few months have been pretty tough for Eli. He moved to New York City and left his small-town in Minnesota with his extended family and everyone he knows. He hasn't made any new friends. And his mom died unexpectedly, shattering his whole world. He misses Mom more and more every day, but Dad refuses to talk about her, leaving Eli alone in his grief. Then Eli finds a stash of instructional cooking videos his mom made, revealing her dream of being a celebrity chef. With the help of the cute new neighbor boy, Mathias, Eli decides to follow his mother's recipes using her videos. If he can recreate his mom's special dishes, then maybe a part of her can stay with him forever. But what happens when the videos run out?
In apprehensive tones, Andr� Santana artfully conveys the concerns of tween Eli as he mourns the sudden loss of his mother, a professional chef, due to the pandemic. At the same time, he is adjusting to life in New York City after a move from Minnesota. When Eli stumbles upon an archive of cooking videos made by his mother, Santana taps into Eli's grief with a falling inflection and slight tremor.
